Another cause of over-exploitation, [Marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia] Earle said, was billions of dollars governments spent subsidizing their fishing industries, trying to protect jobs and a way of life of communities. "But what is not realized is that when the fish have gone, the way of life will come to an end anyway. What's happening is not sustainable," she said.

In this time of persistently high unemployment it borders on heresy to question almost any government program that "saves jobs." But the unsustainable cannot be sustained, and such efforts only postpone the inevitable changes of restructuring, retraining and building new foundations that provide enduring jobs and community vitality. Those in the fishing industry don't want to hear it, but ignorance will be no more blissful in the end to them than it was to telephone operators, buffalo skinners, railroad workers or copy-making typists.